Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Pre-Employment (PraKerja) Card program has helped five million people to open their first bank accounts and e-wallets, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs stated here on Friday.

In addition, as many as 11.1 million people have been Know-Your-Customer (KYC)-verified since they became members for PraKerja benefits.

"This figure shows that PraKerja has become a model for the government programs on the digital economy," the ministry's Deputy for Digital Economy, Employment, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Mohammad Rudy Salahuddin remarked here on Friday.

Salahuddin noted that the signing of the cooperation agreement between the Prakerja management and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) aimed to utilize Indonesia's digital potential.

According to the ministry's deputy, the country's financial service sector has reached a high level of digital maturity, so it is important to realize financial inclusion.

This cross-sector collaboration is a concrete step in strengthening Prakerja's commitment to supporting financial inclusion.

"We welcome the collaboration between OJK and the Prakerja management in encouraging financial inclusion and financial literacy. Moreover, Prakerja is a large-scale skill improvement program," Salahuddin stated.

Meanwhile, the PraKerja evaluation survey has shown significant results in e-wallet usage during the 2020-2023 period.

The survey found that 4.6 million out of the five million PraKerja participants started using e-wallets for the first time and another 500 thousand opened their bank accounts for the first time.

In addition, research conducted by the World Bank and the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) in 2022 showed that almost 90 percent of PraKerja beneficiaries consider that the program provides various options of payment service providers.

In addition, 96.4 percent of PraKerja participants were satisfied with the fast incentive payment mechanism.

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Translator: Bayu S, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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